Tendulkar on the backfoot

The 'Seniors versus youngsters' has been a hot topic of debate in Indian cricket in recent times.

The youngsters may not have exactly set the stage on fire, but the fact that the seniors have not really pitched in when they needed to has not made matters simple.

The seniors, especially the batsmen, have proved to be India's biggest downfall in the ongoing CB tri-series. On the other hand, the youngsters, especially the bowlers have dished out strong performances.

Tendulkar blamed for India's failures

The three senior most players in the squad -- Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh -- have between them aggregated 327 runs in 18 innings at an average of 18.16 with just one score of 50. This is still less than Gautam Gambhir's aggregate of 359 runs (average 59.83) and just marginally higher than Mahendra Singh Dhoni's 296 (avg 74.00).

Senior players in the ongoing CB tri-series:

	Mts	Runs	Avg	SR	100/50
V Sehwag	5	81	16.20	78.64	0/0
S Tendulkar	7	128	18.29	73.99	0/0
Yuvraj Singh	6	118	19.66	81.38	0/1

Sehwag and Yuvraj have always been consistently inconsistent, but it is the form of little master Sachin Tendulkar which should be giving headache to skipper Dhoni. This is turning out to be worst series of Tendulkar's distinguished career.

Tendulkar's worst ODI series (where he played a minimum of 5 innings)

Series/ Tournament	Inns	Runs	Avg	100/50
Commonwealth Bank Series,2007-08	7	128	18.29	0/0
v South Africa in South Africa,1992-93	7	144	20.57	0/0
v Pakistan in India,2004-05	6	145	24.17	1/0
Hero Cup in India,1993-94	6	98	24.50	0/0
Carlton & United Series in Australia,1999-00	8	198	24.75	0/1

This is not that runs have suddenly dried up for Tendulkar. If one take a look at his performance in year 2007, he hardly contributed anything while chasing a target. But this did not become a talking point as he compensated by scoring heavily in the first innings of the match. Unfortunately, he has not been able to run freely even in the first innings in this tournament.

The following two tables reveal some shocking stats. Upto the end of the year 2006, Tendulkar's performance in the first and second innings of the match were almost identical. But since the start of 2007 his performance while chasing a target has gone down the hill. That Tendulkar has not been able to move into double figures in almost 48% innings is a telling statement in itself.

Tendulkar in ODIs (upto 2006):

	Inns	Runs	HS	Avg	SR	100	50	Single-digit scores
Batting first	180	7449	186*	44.08	82.31	25	32	47 (26.11%)
Batting second	185	7088	143	44.02	88.83	15	42	55 (29.72%)